


The Way Water Falls on Skin

by anarchycox



Series: Missing: Four Demons (If Found Return to Hell) [11]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Caught in the Rain, Gardening, JUST KISS ALREADY, M/M, Making Porn, POV Multiple, Sexual Tension, Showers, baths, gum in hair, quiet moments of intimacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 20:37:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19449082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: A lot of our main characters deal with being wet. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, but we learn a lot about our humans and our demons. In order - Roxy, Percival, Harry, Merlin, and Eggsy.





	The Way Water Falls on Skin

“Sergeant Morton, report.”

Roxy stood in the rain, it was pouring down her face, drenching her clothes while the inspector stood under an umbrella. He did not offer to share.

“Anonymous call in, sir. We found the body, right where they said. Same person.”

“Or a bystander, understandably disturbed.”

“Four bystanders sir? This has happened four times now.”

“Was this person killed in a manner like the others? You wouldn’t know, those weren’t your cases were they?”

“I have a lot of spare time to read sir. The method of murder was different. This is the second man. He was stabbed.”

“You sure?” The inspector moved more into the taped off alley.

“Well, he’s missing his heart, so I suppose technically loss of heart is cause of death,” she snarked. “But the raggedy edges around the big gaping hole make me go with stabbing.”

“I don’t like your tone young lady. My sergeants keep a civil and respectful tongue.”

“I don’t think this man who had his heart carved out cares about my tongue,” she replied with a smile. The techs had a tarp strung up protecting the body, but the rain had likely washed away all the evidence. Roxy watched them work. “It’s a serial killer, sir.”

“Do you know how rare those are? This isn’t the movies, sergeant.” He moved forward and stopped her when she started as well. “Thank you, sergeant. That will be all, how about you go fetch me coffee?"

“Not in my job description, sir.” 

“Then get behind the tape. Or better, get gone. When I turn I don’t want to see your face.”

Roxy gave a nod, and went back to the other side of the tape. But she didn’t leave, she watched them work.

“You really don’t want to get on his bad side, he’ll make your life hell,” an officer said softly. “You should go.”

“No, I’m staying until they move the body.”

“Why?”

“Because no one in there is standing for him. So I will,” she replied. Roxy shivered a little in the rain, wiped her face to get it off her lashes, but it did nothing, the rain was starting to come down heavier.

“I don’t have a spare umbrella, and need to keep the crowd away.”

“Just a little rain,” Roxy said, and never took her eyes off the crime scene. “It’s a serial killer, and things are going to get bad. Especially if that wanker is in charge.”

“Now now, don’t worry, he’s much worse than you think,” the officer said.

“ _Fransn zol esn zayn layb,”_ Roxy muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing you want translated,” she said. She watched them load up the body. When the inspector turned she stood there and waved at him. Roxy met his gaze through the rain, and smiled a little when he was the one to break the gaze. She’d pay for that later, but she didn’t really care.

Roxy wasn’t faithful like her godfather, but she whispered a quick prayer as the body went by. She went back to the station and stayed in her wet clothes as she typed up her report and submitted it, before she went to the lockers to stand under a hot spray. She wasn’t surprised when she was called into her boss’s office and given a warning about her attitude. She went outside and it was still raining. Roxy laughed a little as she stood under the overhang. She was going to get wet again. Roxy watched a sea of umbrellas go by, and stepped out in the rain. Roxy had planned to go home to her flat, but her feet took her to Percival. She let herself into his house in St. John’s Wood. She smelled the soup and sighed happily.

A warm breeze swept by her but it almost tsked at the same time. “Auntie Elaine, I know, no dripping on the good floor,” she said. She took off her shoes, and went to the kitchen where Percival was pulling rolls out of the oven. Roxy grabbed a tea towel and dried her hair. “Auntie Elaine still hates a mess.”

“Roxy, the house is not haunted,” he reminded her for the millionth time, but he gave her a wink as he said it. “Love just leaves a presence.”

“Of course.” She went the fridge and grabbed herself a beer. “Shit day.”

“We’ll make it better. Aunt Ruth’s recipe.”

They ate the soup in silence and he reached out and squeezed her hand. Roxy felt the tension leave her body. Her parents lived in Kensington, it was where she had grown up. And she had a tiny flat that she loved.

But this was home.

**************

Percival felt a few drops splash on him as he tended the garden. He looked to the sky, but the clouds were not too ominous and he was near done the planting. There was even a hint of sun. He decided to finish his work. The drops stayed at a light spit and it actually felt good, the work having made him warm enough to strip down to his vest.

A breeze nudged him, and kept nudging him. “No, Aunt Ruth, I like these here,” he said. The breeze got more forceful, and his spade clattered off the wall. “I know you planted these on the east fence, but they get the correct light here. And your plants all were dead within three weeks, so maybe, just maybe I am onto something here?” The spit was turning into a full drizzle, and the soil was getting wet. He’d be filthy. Filthier.

He didn’t mind at all.

Percival finished the planting in the rain, his denim drenched and muddy, his white vest going see through. He didn’t think himself pretty fit, and was glad no one could see him in such a state. Though in his fantasies, Harry was inside, because the tailor was smart enough to go in the second the rain started and was preparing tea. Perhaps standing by the window, watching Percival a bit. Maybe even a wolf whistle would call out - not that the proper man would ever do such a thing.

There, the last flower was planted. He gathered the tools and put them away in the small cabinet he had out back for such, and took a moment to just stand in the rain and admire the garden. He loved it. He loved the whole house that he had inherited, but the garden in particular.

It was magic to him as a child, Aunt Ruth and Auntie Elaine sitting out reading, drinking, him trying to catch butterflies. They had let him camp out there when he got to spend the night. When he had questions about everything, Auntie Elaine answered them, and then Aunt Ruth answered them correctly. He had readied for his bar mitzvah in this garden, and he had come out in this garden.

He had held Aunt Ruth’s hand while she died in this garden.

He raised his face to the rain and let it pour over him. It felt good. He had always enjoyed the rain. But he felt that breeze nudging him towards the house. “I won’t catch my death from a little spring rain. England would have no population if that were the case.” But he let himself be nudged.

He dried off and checked his phone which he had left inside. Percival smiled to himself, it seemed his shirts were ready at the tailors. Shame that the airline had lost his luggage and he had to go in and order several new shirts. He dressed carefully and grabbed an umbrella, headed out, his luggage still in the hall from its delivery from the airline yesterday. But he couldn't have known for sure it would be found.

It was hard juggling the coffees and biscotti under the umbrella, but Harry saw him through the window, opened the door for him. “You didn’t have to come right away, in the rain,” Harry chided.

“I like the rain. A bit wet never bothered me,” Percival held out the coffee and treat. “And this will warm me up. If you have the time?”

Harry smiled at him. “I do,” he said. “And wet doesn’t bother me. I like being...wet.”

And didn’t that make Percival think all sorts of interesting things.

****************

Harry pressed into the man under the shower and kissed the nape of his neck. “Mmmm, baby like that do you?”

“Yes, Daddy, please,” the man groaned, and Harry changed their angle under the shower a little more and received a thumb’s up from the cameraman and then began to fuck the man hard. A second joined them, and sank to his knees to suck cock. 

They all moved about together, Harry having worked with both these men before and they had a nice rhythm together. The cameraman and sound guy were both also regulars and it just was going quite well. A few directions were called out and they adjusted themselves accordingly. There had to be a brief pause and Harry pulled out of the man, and stroked himself leisurely while they waited. They all switched about a bit under the water and were ready to go again.

Harry said all the things he was supposed to, never terribly vulgar, he was known as the gentleman fuck in the circles. The form he used for pornography was fit, slightly fitter than his regular form, and thank god he was demon and didn’t actually have to spend hours working out to maintain it. He smirked a little - he supposed technically this was the workout to keep the form. No sex, and he’d have to go home home, and he had no intentions of that.

The shower water got in his eyes a bit and he shook his head. The three bodies pressed together and moaned, and moved. Soon enough it was done, the orgasm he had, that the other two had was satisfactory enough to keep him going for a couple weeks. They all cleaned up and shook hands. The other two men were going to do another scene, but Harry was good for the day. The cameraman mentioned he had word of a big orgy job coming up, that he thought Harry might enjoy and Harry agreed easily. That would satisfy him for a month. On the lift down he changed from his porn form, to his regular human form and walked to the nearest tube stop, a spring in his step.

Harry went to home to his flat in the converted church and enjoyed the way the whole building seemed to sigh in frustration as he walked in. He changed into home clothes, and poured himself a brandy. He headed to his personal office and worked on editing one of his masturbation films to upload on Pornhub. Another one in the shower, he realized.

Right now he had a thing for water.

He had ever since Percival had come to the shop, a bit damp from the rain, even though he had had an umbrella. Harry pictured if he and Percival had been in the shower together. He knew what the man looked like, stripped to vest and pants, but had to guess at the rest. He was a very good guesser at these sorts of things, and what he imagined was very good indeed.

It would be softer, gentler than what had been filmed. Quiet. There would be no need for words. Their mouths would be too busy kissing anyways. Harry let his mind drift, imagine all the wonderful things he could do with Percival in the shower, when his phone rang. He would have ignored it, but it kept ringing.

“Yes?” he answered, tone far more clipped than he would usually use.

“Harry, how do I wash bubble gum out of a pug’s fur, and a little girl’s hair? Asking for entirely...theoretical reasons?”

Harry heard the panic in Merlin’s voice. “I take it Eggsy is not there?”

“No, helping Jamal move, and Michelle dropped Daisy off. Harry that was a lie, this is not theoretical in the least.”

“Really, that shocks me. But good job, you managed a shitty lie for five seconds. I’m coming over.”

“You know what to do?”

“Not in the least, but we fought god, we can figure this out.” Harry hung up and saved his files. He decided to drive over. He almost had the hang of driving he thought. A light sprinkle had started and he changed his mind. He was not ready to drive in the rain.

*******

“I like my new short hair!” Daisy promised him, and Merlin smiled at her.

“I am glad,” he said. “Think your mum is going to kill me?”

“Yes,” she smiled at him. “Still like it though. You have gum on your head too.”

“I’ll shower in a bit,” he said. He looked at poor JB with his patch of bald where the gum had to be clipped out of his fur. “I think we all learned a valuable lesson.”

“It’s sort of on your horns!”

“Remember my love, you are supposed to pretend you don’t see those.”

“But they are cool.”

“I know, but it worries your brother,” Merlin reminded her. He touched his head, and yes there was indeed some double bubble there. And in his eyebrows. He and Daisy really should not have had that bubble blowing contest. “If I put cartoons on, will you be okay while I shower?” Harry had left almost immediately after the worst of the crisis had passed; he had fought heaven alongside Merlin, but apparently staying to deal with the Eggsy fallout out from this adventure was a bridge too far.

“Yup!”

Merlin put on My Little Pony, and headed to the bathroom. He stepped under the hot water and started to scrub the gum off his scalp, pull it out of his eyebrows. It was not a fun job, but he was making good progress when the bathroom door slammed open.

“Hey, Merlin, see you are babysitting?”

“I am, and we have had an interesting afternoon. Daisy is wonderful as ever. I was thinking we order in pizza for dinner, she loves pizza.” Merlin was very still under the shower spray.

“She does,” Eggsy agreed. “I could be down for pizza.”

“Lovely. Now then, I am a little busy, Eggsy, if I could have some privacy to finish my shower?” Merlin asked. The door closed but he knew Eggsy was still in there, could hear him move about, could just feel the shape of him in the room. He could also see the shadow of the man through the shower curtain. He was very glad the thing was opaque. “You waiting your turn? Must be sore from moving Jamal.”

“Showered at his,” Eggsy replied. Merlin could hear him settle onto the counter. “So, what did you and Daisy do?”

The gum was almost out of his eyebrows. “Many things.” That was truth, they had done a bunch of stuff. Much of it fun, until the incident. 

“Are we really going to play it like this?”

Merlin hung his head under the spray. He was all clean, but didn’t dare turn off the water and step out. “She wanted to learn how to blow bubbles with gum. Hassan can do it. So we were practicing. I admit I had no skills, and was perhaps not the best teacher.”

“Here is my question, how did it get on JB?”

“I blew wrong and the gum flew out of my mouth onto his fur, which caused Daisy to laugh and make her credible bubble explode. She was leaning forward at the time, and it got caught on my head and in her hair. I honestly don’t know how. Bubble gum is a very puzzling thing, Eggsy. Its properties make no sense and do not behave in a logical manner.”

“I know, why mum doesn’t let her have any yet.”

“She did not inform me of this.”

“Of course she didn’t, and she and I will be speaking about that.”

“You wish to yell at me for being a poor babysitter,” Merlin sighed. “And I would as well. I am sorry I didn’t keep her safe.”

“Merlin…”

“I understand that my Daisy time is over for a while.” That upset him mightily. He adored the small human. Also he had disappointed Eggsy, and that made his heart hurt.

“Merlin, turn off the water, so I can look you in the eye.”

Merlin shut off the shower, and opened the curtain. Eggsy’s gaze never drifted down, to take in his body. Merlin took the towel that Eggsy tossed him, and wrapped it around his waist. “Just say it.”

“Shit happens with kids, it is okay.”

“I was supposed to keep her safe.”

“And you did, yeah?” Eggsy smiled. “Would have played angry more, but you were too upset. The haircut looks cute on her, you did a good job.”

“Harry did that portion. He is more adept with scissors than me.”

“Makes sense.” Eggsy shrugged. “Trust me, worse has happened when I watched her. It will grow back.”

“I had to bathe her, technically I don’t have permission for that.”

“Merlin, family has to bathe grubby kids all the damn time, it’s fine. Swear down, it is fine. No one on the planet, or in heaven or hell, I trust her with more than you, okay?”

The tension seeped out of Merlin’s shoulders. “Thank you, Eggsy.”

Eggsy nodded and hopped off the counter. “Sorry to interrupt your shower.”

“I didn’t mind.” Merlin minded very little that Eggsy did. He watched Eggsy’s gaze flick down to his chest, to where the towel covered him and back up. “You could interrupt me whenever.”

“Could I?” Eggsy asked. He took a step closer to Merlin, and they both heard the crash from below them and Eggsy ran out of the bathroom. A few drips from the shower head tapped on Merlin’s head, and he cursed, wondered what would have happened if.

He and Eggsy always seemed to be an if.

********************

Eggsy was indulging himself. He had switched about the whole window display at the shop and was aching a bit. The mannequins were ancient, which meant solid wood, and a bitch to move about. When he had gotten home, he had grabbed a beer, and drawn a scalding bath. And yeah he threw in one of the galaxy bath bombs he kept in for when he babysat Daisy, because they smelled bloody brilliant didn’t they? He even had the lights dimmed, and it felt good.

He could hear pacing outside the bathroom. “Merlin, there is a bog downstairs! I’m not moving.”

“I am to meet Harry in an hour, that event he needed a date for, that he chickened out asking Percival to? Remember?”

“Okay?” Eggsy didn’t at all, but that didn’t mean anything. “Have fun!” He sank into the water a little more.

“I need to shave. If I go with scruff, he will tear my wings off. He said so.”

“He wouldn’t actually do that.” Eggsy was pretty sure. “How important is this thing?”

“He made himself a new black tie suit.”

“Fuck, I am comfy Merlin, my thighs are killing me, and I don’t even know if I could stand yet.”

“I need to shave, Eggsy.”

Eggsy groaned, he was not moving. “Just come in and shave. Bath bomb made the water dark enough you won’t see my dick and be scandalized.”

Merlin opened the door, and Eggsy looked over at him. He was only in his boxer briefs. “Your face has zero stubble, you bastard.”

“Not my face,” Merlin replied.

Eggsy could easily blame the flush on his cheek on the hot bath water, when his gaze drifted down to Merlin’s happy trail. “Why would you have to shave there for Harry?”

“Where?” Merlin was confused.

“There,” Eggsy gestured to Merlin’s crotch. “Seriously, this a porn function or something?”

“I meant my head, Eggsy.”

Eggsy looked up and saw that there was stubble on Merlin’s scalp where hair still grew. “Okay, going to drown myself now. You can just leave my corpse.”

“I would, but Harry would be mad if I was late.”

“That is an irony and a half.” Eggsy leaned his head on the back of the tub and closed his eyes. He could hear Merlin puttering, getting everything ready, the run of water, and eventually the scrape of blade on skin. “Why’d you pick a human form that was mostly bald?”

“You don’t pick pick your human form?” Merlin said.

“Harry does, he has the second one.”

“Harry is an exception. Your human form is something you create, but you have to be able to map it onto yourself. It reflects the essence of you.”

“And your essence is bald and badass and beautiful,” Eggsy replied without thinking. The sound of metal on skin stalled for a moment. The air grew thick in the room, tension even heavier than the steam that hung in the air.

“I can have misheard that,” Merlin offered.

“No,” Eggsy replied softly. He opened his eyes, and met Merlin’s in the mirror. He was half done shaving his tonsure. “You are what you are. Just facts, yeah?"

“Indeed, and since I am a demon of no hair, that translates to a human with no hair,” Merlin said, and they both let the other words sit there with no response. He finished up and tidied the sink area. “Thank you for letting me in.”

Eggsy looked at him. “Merlin?”

“Yes?”

Eggsy looked at the water, which was a far clearer blue than he realized. Merlin had been able to see everything the whole time. He didn’t especially mind. “Have a good time.”

“I will,” Merlin replied. 

Eggsy sighed and sank under the water after Merlin left the bathroom, and stayed there until his lungs burned. If he got out, he’d be able to see Merlin all dressed up, in a suit cut perfectly by Harry. But he didn’t know if he could keep his hands off. And they weren’t hands on. Not yet. They were maybe something. But not that.

Eggsy stayed in the water until he heard the front door slam and he pulled the plug. He drained his beer and went to his bedroom, and had a wank, thinking about what could have happened in that bathroom, if Merlin had come in, with no other place to be. If they were in a place he thought maybe they were working towards. He made a mess of himself and realized it would just be easiest to have another quick shower. Eggsy let the water pour over him and imagined that Merlin was there, talking to him, cleaning him up.

If they were those people.

If only.

If.


End file.
